Lily, Short a Petal
by AFootyFan
Summary: Everyone reaches the point in their lives when they decide they've had enough. Lily Evans has reached this point, and now plans to rectify the situation. How far would you go to hold a grudge? Not THIS far...


_Crouched behind a large leather armchair was the girl in the hooded cloak. The roaring flames beyond the hearth illuminated all within their reach, but the figure remained basked in shadow. Such was her disguise, in fact, that one would need more than just a well-lit room to see her, but in addition a myriad of complex spells as well._

_The reason for this? All the answers lay woven into the cloak that reflected the background rather than the girl herself. The cloak made her completely invisible. An invisibility cloak…_

I had to stifle a groan of discomfort in my current position, squatted behind the best armchair in the Gryffindor common room, which was starting to look more and more inviting as the minutes dragged by.

Sure, the idea had sounded cool and suave when I'd first thought it up: stalk him and eavesdrop on his late night conversations with his fellow bandit toe-rag friends.

Upon coming up with this brilliant plan, I had not considered the idea that Potter may have decided to take a midnight lope across the grounds and into the Forbidden Forest. Silly me. Never before had I been so scared out of my wits. Not to mention my legs were about ready to fall off.

And for what? What have I learned from this adventurous escapade? That boy can _run_. And apparently freezing rain and sleet don't deter him. I, on the other hand… Well, my cloak wasn't exactly designed to repel water. I as soaked and numb to the bone. I knew, however, that it was all worthwhile- Potter would certainly pay for this; for somehow luring me out of my warm bed and across the perilous grounds. This was, of course, all his fault.

Wait a minute- something was actually happening!

"Padfoot?" came Potter's breathless and excited voice. I chanced a glance from behind the armchair. Was he talking to himself? I shouldn't have been surprised. But no, in his hand he held a grand old mirror, the face of which I couldn't see.

"Prongs! We've been waiting for you! What took so long?" Potter cast a look around the room, his eyed sweeping right over me.

"I thought someone was following me. I had to go into the forest- if anyone was behind me I definitely lost them in there," he stated matter-of-factly.

A tingle of self pride swept through me. That overconfident bastard! It would take much worse than that to shake _me_ off. Why? I, Lily Evans, was on a mission. I was going to dig up so much dirt on Potter and his sick friends that Dumbledore would have no choice but to expel them.

"Stop fooling around and get down here!" the voice (sounding suspiciously like Sirius Black's) replied through the mirror. I wanted to shout for joy- finally I was going to see some action! Potter grimaced, pocketing the mirror, and crossed the room in a few long strides. I shuffled along awkwardly behind him, being careful not to trip on the hem of my cloak.

He led the way through the portrait hole and down to the Great Hall, where three dark figures were obviously trying to blend with the shadows, failing miserably. Their profiles were clearly outlined by the moonlight that filtered in through the enchanted ceiling. I snorted at the sight just as Potter chuckled to himself. Immediately I stopped, appalled. Lily Evans does _not_ share funny moments with _Potter_.

"I can see you all," he announced to Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew.

"Yeah, well, we got tired of hiding," Black replied, grinning. I carefully made my way over to a rather cozy-looking granite pillar on which I could lean while they did whatever nonsense they had planned, stifling my yawn as I went. "And besides," Black continued, an evil gleam coming to his eye, "Snivilous decided to pay us a visit."

I wished to personally see that Potter and Black were the first on the train back home after being expelled. The way they treated Severous Snape was something that made my blood boil. Well, I suppose that's a bit of an exaggeration. It made me really, really mad. This was a fact that was widely noticed, and unpleasant rumors had circulated Hogwarts for a few weeks last year, all started by the Marauders, as they called themselves.

But that was all behind us now, and revenge was within my grasp. I could almost see the looks on their faces when they were told just _who _had turned them in for all their petty crimes.

So caught up in this glorious image was I that I didn't realize an entire conversation had been playing out in front of me. I shook myself. I wasn't there quite yet. I just had to concentrate and then the worthless ruffians would be out of my hair forever.

"-get Chucky to do it," Potter was saying. Sirius looked unsure.

"Think he could handle the pressure?" he asked with a mean snigger.

"Well, you know house elves, they love doing everything for us," Peter bravely spoke up before stepping back shyly to hide behind Remus.

"Kinda like you, Peter," Black pointed out with a thoughtful expression. His comment was ignored, but even in the dim light I could see Peter turn red.

"So it's settled then? We get Chucky to do it?" verified Remus.

Potter nodded. "He can handle it," he assured Black, reaching into his robes and pulling out a crumpled paper bag. If this had been a muggle alleyway, I would have assumed the contents of the bag to be drugs. "Tell him not too much, though… that's just something none of us want to see," he grinned and Black smirked, taking the bag from Potter's outstretched hand.

"Will do Prongs. Nighty-night!" and with that, Lupin, Black, and Pettigrew made their way out of the Great Hall, in the direction of the Hufflepuff dormitories. The silence resounded as Potter stared at the starry ceiling and I stared at him.

What would life be like without Potter to deal with every day? I hadn't really considered the idea that I might actually _miss_ him…

No. That would never happen.


End file.
